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Why do some people grow goofy and affectionate when soused, while others become downright nasty? There are a lot of factors at play, says explains Joshua Gowin, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Some are speculative—a tiny bit of research links whisky to angry behavior (but it’s also possible that angry people just gravitate toward whisky, for whatever reason, says Gowin). Others, like these six below, are more concrete: different factors that science shows determine your intoxicated identity.